Wednesday, November 14, 2012

On Michel Kilu

Akram, Angry Arab's Syria correspondent, sent me this brief note a few days ago: "

This isn't Lebanon, Iraq or Egypt. This is
Syria heading toward its freedom by saying that the Syrians are one people, that
the Syrians aren't, and don't want to be Sunnis, Alawite, Christians, Druze or
Ismailis, but all of them at once

Of
course, Michel Kilo has the right to see things the way he wants, but he can't
deprive us of our right of qualifying him as blind, hypocrite or George Sabra
the second."

So I asked him to elaborate, and he sent me this additional report:

"Sorry for my late response. As you may understand, it’s not
only related to my own occupations, but also, and more importantly, the events
in Syria make me sometimes toodisgusted and depressed to read even my own e-mails.

I don’t know Michel Kilo personally but he was a friend of my
late father who’s gone a couple of years before the Syrian uprising broke up.
The man was an eminent figure of the political activity known as Damascus Spring
that took place immediately after Bashar Assad inherited the presidency of Syria
in 2000, (and repressed by the Syrian regime, especially by Abdulhalim Khaddam
who was then vice-president before recognizing, long before Ryiad Hijab and
Manaf Tlass, the financial advantages of defection). He participated, among 99
Syrian figures, in releasing a manifesto calling on the new Syrian president to
adopt thorough political reforms. His name also appeared on “Damascus-Beirut
Beirut-Damascus Declaration” calling for a full Syrian recognition of Lebanon as
a complete state, less than one year after the humiliating withdrawal of the
Syrian army from Lebanon following the assassination of the Lebanese PM and the
Saudi man in Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri (It’s amazing to see names like Hassan
abdel-‘Azeem and Haytham Mana’a from the National Coordination Body, the main
opposition body inside Syria, side by side with the name of Burhan Ghalioun,
Radwan Ziadeh and Obeida Nahhas, from the Syrian National Council, and Ali
Sadreddin al-Bayianouni of the Muslim Brotherhood and many others who were,
then, almost unknown, before becoming superstars thanks to the dumbness and the
brutality of the Syrian regime and the hard work of the oil media). Kilo’s
signature on the declaration cost him three years in prison before being
released in 2009 and leaving the public scene until March 2010.

With the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Michel Kilo
returned back to the limelight with extensive appearances on al-arabyia and
al-Jazeera and printed media with articles championing the "Syrian Revolution"
and defending its popular, peaceful and secular characteristics. In the
beginning, Assafir, the Lebanese newspaper, hosted Michel Kilo’s weekly articles
and his criticisms to the Syrian regime were understandable despite some
excesses. With the criminal oppression of the Syrian regime and the brazen
western intervention, the Syrian uprising began changing its face toward more
violence and extremism. News and scenes of atrocities practiced by the armed
groups against Syrian soldiers, people suspected of being collaborators with the
Syrian regime and civilians of the Alawite community proliferated without the
rhetoric of Michel Kilo reflecting this catastrophic mutation. His articles
continue repeating the same misleading narrative (unarmed people confronting
"with bare chest" the lethal and sectarian machine of the Syrian regime, the
patriotic Free Syrian Army protecting heroically the protesters) and promoting,
prophetically, a new secular, civic and democratic Syria that will, inevitabely,
emerge from the triumphant revolution, where “individuals are defined by their
freedom” regardless of “their national, social, ethnic or religious affiliation”
(Arabic)
and live under the auspices of an organized, developed and productive state that
provides its citizens “equal economic and social rights” (Arabic)

But the most striking is the dual language that has appeared
in Kilo’s articles especially when he became a permanent guest in al-Sharq
al-Awssat, the Saudi newspaper which expresses the point of views of House of
Saud. While, in his pan-Arab version of Assafir, Michel Kilo concentrates his
criticism on the Islamists, condemning the Muslim Brothers for seeking Turkish
military intervention (Arabic)
or using the power of money and media to seize the power (Arabic),calling them on to take a clear position from the militarization of the
uprising (Arabic), in
his Saudi version, Kilo remembers suddenly the incapability of “international
community” toward the Syrian crisis calling for a new definition of the national
sovereignty that takes in consideration the “right of peoples of life and
freedom” (Arabic)
and evokes all the sins of the Syrian regime and his Russian and Iranian allies
(Arabic).
However, in both versions, Kilo avoids any reference to the sectarian crimes
committed by the FAS thugs.

But Michel Kilo isn’t a solo “leftist” singer. He is rather
part of a large swath of leftists, from the Iraqi communists who backed the
American invasion of Iraq, to the Democratic Left Movement in with his abnormal
alliance with the Future movement and the Lebanease Forces, and the People Party
of Ryiad Turk (who, one day, expressed his gratitude of the positions of
“President [George W.] Bush for his solidarity with the Syrian people” and his
brilliant pupil, George Sabra, the Christian/communist leader of the Muslim
Brotherhood’ SNC), who sold their souls to the devil for money, posts or simply
for revenge."

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

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